The Redmi Y3, a selfie camera-centric smartphone from Chinese phone maker Xiaomi, is a successor to the Redmi Y2 (review), with more than just a few cosmetic upgrades. Its front camera has higher megapixels, and the phone boasts a new design, mid-tier processor, and decent battery capacity. The sum of its features and specifications makes the smartphone an all-rounder in its segment, at least on paper. Let us take a look at how it fares in real life:

Design and display

The Xiaomi Redmi Y3 takes design cues from the Redmi Note 7-series. It has a metallic chassis and glass on the front and back. The glass body makes it prone to fingerprints which dulls it reflective properties and requires regular cleaning to maintain the sheen. The phone’s front is covered with a 6.26-inch screen and has a dot shaped notch on top to house the front camera. Though bright and vivid, the screen is not the sharpest in the segment due to its HD+ resolution. It also lacks the Widevine L1 certification, required to stream high-definition content from over-the-top (OTT) platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Videos.

Camera

The phone’s 32-megapixel selfie shooter is its biggest strength. The sensor supports face recognition, auto HDR, beauty mode, portrait mode, screen flash and electronic image stabilisation (EIS).

Face recognition helps the camera identify human face in a frame and set the exposure accordingly. This feature aids the camera in bright outdoor conditions and lets you take a selfie without losing details. The beauty mode comes in handy as you can add a filter to remove skin blemishes; the photos look soft and enhanced. In the portrait mode, the camera adds an artificial blur in the background while keeping focus on the object. The EIS helps the phone take stable hand-held shots.

On the back, the Redmi Y3 has a dual-camera module: A 13-megapixel primary sensor mated with a 2MP depth sensor. In terms of the back camera, too, the phone is a decent performer in its segment.

Software and performance

Powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 system-on-chip, the Redmi Y3 boots the Android Pie operating system-based MIUI 10 user interface. The phone feels snappy and handles most daily operations without any troubles. However, the phone feels underpowered while playing graphic-intensive games like Asphalt 9 or processing videos or images using multimedia-editing apps.

Battery

With a power efficient HD+ screen and Snapdragon 632 SoC, the phone’s 4,000 mAh battery returns a decent on-battery time of 14 hours on regular use. It is not the battery, but the charging that hampers the experience; the phone takes more than two hours to charge from zero to 100 per cent using the charger that comes in the box.

Verdict

Priced at Rs 9,999 for the base model (3GB/32GB), the Redmi Y3 is a decent performer with a good selfie camera. The phone’s HD+ display might not impress multimedia enthusiasts due to its sub-par sharpness and lack of HD streaming support. However, its glass build, gradient design, decent battery, and capable selfie camera make the phone a good option in the camera-centric budget smartphone segment.